Transcript Lesson 11: Life at Home

Lesson 11: Family and Life at
Home
Robert Wonser
Introduction to Sociology
Lesson Outline
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What is the Family?
Diversity in Families
Sociological Perspectives on the family
Homogamy and Propinquity
Doing the work of the family
Family and the life course
Trouble in families
Divorce and break-up
Trends in American families
The postmodern family
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What is a
Family?
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What is a Family?
 The U.S. Census Bureau defines family
as two or more individuals related by
blood, marriage, or adoption living in
the same household.
 According to sociologists, family is
defined as a social group whose
members are bound by legal, biological,
or emotional ties, or a combination of all
three.
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What is the Family?
(cont’d)
 An extended family is a large group
of relatives, usually including at least
three generations living either in one
household or in close proximity.
 Kin is defined as relatives or
relations, usually those related by
common descent.
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What is the Family?
(cont’d)
 A nuclear family is a familial form
consisting of a father, mother and
their biological children.
 How common is this family type now?
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Diversity in Families
 Endogamy refers to marriage to
someone within one’s social group
(race, ethnicity, class, education,
religion, region, or nationality).
 Exogamy refers to marriage to
someone from a different social
group.
 Which type is more common? Why?
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Diversity in Families
(cont’d)
 From the time of slavery through the
1960s, many states had
antimiscegenation laws (the
prohibition of interracial marriage,
cohabitation, or sexual interaction).
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Diversity in Families
(cont’d)
 Monogamy, the practice of marrying (or
being in a relationship with) one person at
a time, is still considered the only legal
form of marriage in modern western
culture.
 Polygamy, a system of marriage that
allows people to have more than one
spouse at a time, is practiced among some
subcultures around the world, but is not
widely acknowledged as a legitimate form
of marriage.
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Diversity in Families
(cont’d)
 The more common form of polygamy
is polygyny, which a system of
marriage that allows men to have
multiple wives.
 Polyandry, a system of marriage
that allows women to have multiple
husbands, is a more rare form of
polygamy.
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Sociological Perspectives on the
Family
 Structural Functionalism views the
family as one of the basic institutions
that keeps society running smoothly
by providing functions such as
producing and socializing children,
economic production, instrumental
and emotional support, and sexual
control.
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Sociological Perspectives on the
Family (cont’d)
 Conflict theorists believe that
society revolves around conflict over
scarce resources, and that conflict
within the family is also about the
competition for resources: time,
energy, and the leisure to pursue
recreational activities.
 Inequality begins at home
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Sociological Perspectives on the
Family (cont’d)
 Symbolic Interactionists examine
the types of social dynamics and
interactions that create and sustain
families, emphasizing the ways that
our experiences of family bonds are
socially created rather than naturally
existing.
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Forming Relationships, Selecting
Mates
 The process of selecting mates is
largely determined by society
 Two concepts (homogamy and
propinquity) tell us a lot about how
this process works.
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Forming Relationships, Selecting
Mates (cont’d)
 Homogamy means “like marries like,”
and is demonstrated by the fact that we
tend to choose mates who are similar to
us in:
 class, race, ethnicity, age, religion,
education, and even levels of
attractiveness.
 Propinquity is the tendency to marry
or have relationships with people in
close geographic proximity.
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Doing the Work of Family
 Many types of work
(both paid and
unpaid) are
necessary to keep a
family operating.
 These tasks can be
either instrumental
or expressive.
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Doing the Work of Family
(cont’d)
 Instrumental tasks refer to the
practical physical tasks necessary to
maintain family life (washing dishes
and cutting grass).
 Expressive tasks refer to the
emotional work necessary to support
family members (remembering a
relative’s birthday or playing with the
kids).
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Doing the Work of Family
(cont’d)
 Men and women have always performed
different roles to ensure the survival of their
families, but these roles were not considered
unequal until after the Industrial Revolution.
 Work started taking place outside of the
home, for a paid wage.
 As a result, the kind of work that became
valuable was the kind that happened outside
of the home.
 This is when “housework” became unvalued,
because it was not associated with a wage.
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Doing the Work of Family
 Women nowadays have
two jobs: paid labor
outside the home and
unpaid labor inside the
home.
 Second shift (unpaid
labor inside the home
that is often expected
of women after they get
home from working at
paid labor outside the
home).
(cont’d)
Many women juggle fulltime jobs with caring for
their children and running
their home with little help
from their spouses.
According to Arlie
Hochschild, what are the
consequences of the
supermom strategy?
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Trends in Housework since 1900
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Eat Dinner at Home or Eat Out?
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Family and the Life Course
(cont’d)
 Life expectancy is increasing. What is
happening to the elderly population?
 About 10% of the elderly live below the
poverty line.
 Care of the elderly is no longer a primary
function of family: over 40% of senior
citizens will spend time in a nursing
home.
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Trouble in Families
 Domestic violence is by far the most
common form of family violence. It
includes behaviors abusers use to gain
and maintain power over their victims.
Abuse can be:
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Physical
Verbal
Financial
Sexual
Psychological
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Trouble in Families
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(cont’d)
Rates of domestic violence are about equal across racial and ethnic
groups, sexual orientations, and religious groups.
People are more likely to be killed or attacked by family members than
anyone else.
 5.9 out of every 1,000 and 2.1 out of every 1,000 men experience
domestic violence
 60% of offenses occur between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. in the victim’s
home
 In 2005, 1,181 women and 329 men were killed by their intimate
partners
 Domestic violence calls are the single largest category of calls to
the police
 Only a very small number of domestic violence incidents are
reported to the police
 - National Institute of Justice Special Report June 2009
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Divorce and Breakups
 As of March 2002, the U.S. Census
reported that more than 123 million
persons were married while about 21
million were divorced.
 Research indicates that about 50
percent of all first marriages now end
in divorce and most who divorce
remarry.
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U.S. Divorce Rate Over the Past Century
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Single Parenthood
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 2010: 45% of 25
to 35 year olds
are married
 2000: 55%
 1960: 80%
 Why:
 Education
 Cohabitation
 All Things
Considered
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Trends in American Families
 About 5% of all households are
occupied by couples who are
cohabitating (living together as a
romantically involved, unmarried
couple).
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Cohabitation in the United
States
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Trends in American Families
(cont’d)
 Increases in the numbers of:
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Single people.
People who are cohabitating
Single parents
People who are living in intentional
communities (any of a variety of
groups who form communal living
arrangements outside marriage).
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The Postmodern Family
 Families adapting to the challenges of
a postmodern society may create
family structures that look very
different from the “traditional” family
and can include ex-spouses, new
partners and children, other kin, and
even non-kin such as friends and
coworkers.
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Lesson Quiz
1. How do contemporary sociologists define family?
a. Relatives or relations, usually those related by
common descent
b. A social group whose members are bound by
legal, biological, or emotional ties, or a
combination of all three
c. Two or more individuals related by blood,
marriage, or adoption living in the same
household
d. A two-parent household with children
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Lesson Quiz
2. The fact that people tend to marry
someone from a similar social class
background demonstrates:
a. endogamy
b. polygyny
c. polyandry
d. exogamy
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Lesson Quiz
3. The prohibition of interracial marriage,
cohabitation, or sexual interaction is called:
a. antimiscegenation
b. antifulcrumation
c. antiinternization
d. antipolygamation
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Lesson Quiz
4. Which of the following is NOT a current
trend in the population of American
families?
a. There are more single people.
b. There are more married couples.
c. More people are cohabitating.
d. Modern families include a greater variety
of structures, like new partners, exspouses, and step-children.
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Lesson Quiz
5. The unpaid labor inside the home that is
often expected of women after they get
home from working at paid labor outside
the home is called:
a. gendered work
b. instrumental work
c. a resistance strategy
d. the second shift
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Take Away Points:
 The family too is socially constructed.
 Its form and structure reflects the
society and culture it emerges out of.
 Who we marry is largely structured
by society.
 The Family as an institution is
undergoing fundamental change.
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For Next Time:
 Lastly, what has perhaps the biggest
influence on you?
 Popular Culture
 Be sure to Read! (check your syllabus
for assigned readings!)
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